


The Village Hidden in the Mind

by Aesoleucian



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Genjutsu, Uzushiogakure, WHAT OTHER TAGS CAN I USE, geez that will make this hard to find
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-10 17:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8926105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aesoleucian/pseuds/Aesoleucian
Summary: Starry_Fantasies and I were talking about how there should be more ninja villages that specialize in cool chakra techniques rather than just different kinds of elemental ninjutsu (y'know, like Uzushio's fuuinjutsu specialty!), and we thought, what if there were a ninja village that specialized in chakra *control*? Well, for one thing, no-one would have heard of it because they're just that damn good at genjutsu. Therefore, the Village Hidden in the Mind is already canon! It's just that none of the POV characters from Naruto knew about it. :^)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starfleur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starfleur/gifts).



00:0940

Every week Yougo or someone else from the go-between company meets with one of the masked representatives of Nouzuigakure. They’re all eerie as hell—their masks don’t even have eye holes, just featureless white wood—and none of them make any sound when they walk. Yougo’s not sure if it’s genjutsu or if they’re just that quiet, but they scare him. The only thing that keeps him working for the go-between company is that it pays very, very well.

Today he has a tail from Kusa. The guy is pretty good, but he’s definitely not good enough to see Yougo’s rock clone, much less avoid its sleeping toxin. Yougo turns him over and goes through his pockets to make sure he’s not hiding any information or money. No—this one’s clean. So he slings the man over his shoulder and carries him the rest of the way to the rendezvous point.

The Nouzui nin is already waiting. This time it’s the smaller man who sometimes asks about Yougo’s little boy. “I see you’ve brought a friend,” he says cheerfully.

“I dunno why they still bother trying to tail us,” says Yougo, putting the man down. “Can you do that freaky mind erase-y thing to him?”

“Sure,” says the Nouzui nin. “You lucked out today. I’m the best there is at mindwipes.”

Yougo shudders, but only inwardly. He’s a professional, after all.

The Nouzui nin pulls open one of the man’s eyes and stares into it. Apparently. Without taking off his mask, the creepy fucker. And then he gets up and dusts off the knees of his gray-green pants. “All done. Now, what missions do you have for us this week?” He pulls open the scroll Yougo hands him and skims it. Then he says, “I guess Kusa finally got curious again about who’s giving them all the credit for their tougher missions. Looks like everything’s in order. Thanks, Iwata-san.” He waves, and then completely vanishes like he was never there at all. Yougo rolls his eyes, because feeling exasperated is better than feeling freaked out any day. And he picks up the Kusa nin again and starts walking back to headquarters.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! I wrote this today and didn't edit it at all! yo freaking lo

00:1703 

Gauru is tempted to say that the representative from Shimogakure looks trustworthy, except that as a member of Fukumen—and, right now, as a bodyguard—it’s his job not to trust anybody. The woman _looks_ trustworthy, with open body language and polite but not fawning mannerisms. She even sounds trustworthy, not using the pompous language favored by many diplomats. She was clearly chosen to put Commander Hourou at ease. It seems that she was not counting on Commander Hourou’s bodyguard to have byakugan, because the four shinobi waiting outside the room are not concealed at all. Gauru suspects that they are to ambush and capture Commander Hourou if she does not give the answer Shimogakure is looking for. Although Gauru is not a long-range communicator, he does have the ability to lay a momentary visual genjutsu over Commander Hourou, displaying the words _FOUR SHINOBI WAITING OUTSIDE. AMBUSH LIKELY._ She nods as she dispels it. The Shimogakure representative probably thinks she is being addressed, because she makes another shallow bow before she sits.

“Thank you so much for coming in person, Commander,” says the representative. “Well, I assume you are the Commander, although the secrecy of your village and the mask you wear make it impossible to know. Your precautions are truly commendable, though I wish you trusted us a little more. We’re doing our best to be trustworthy.”

Gauru rolls his eyes at that, secure in the knowledge that no-one can see them. He does not let his body language betray any emotion as he stands behind Commander Hourou’s seat. To anyone watching, he should appear to have his attention trained on the bodyguard standing behind the representative from Shimogakure, as they are watching him through the narrow slits in their mask. They’re young, with the cloud-grey hair common in Shimogakure, but their relaxed stance and lack of scars indicate that they are very capable. Still, it will not be enough to help them when their comrades attack. Gauru and Commander Hourou will have the advantage of surprise, and the representative from Shimogakure does not look like a fighter—she will be a liability, while Commander Hourou can easily fend for herself against three enemies.

“I assure you, this is what trust looks like,” says Commander Hourou. “Normally I would have brought more bodyguards.” A lie. Because they are not in Shimogakure proper, two should be sufficient to fight their way out. Commander Hourou takes a sip of tea to make her point; Gauru is an accomplished enough medic that with his collection of antidotes he should be able to cure her of most poisons. Commander Hourou does not believe it will come to that, though. “So, why did you want to meet me?” she asks.

The representative smiles warmly and sips her own tea. “On behalf of Shimo, I would like to propose an alliance between our villages. For a long time you have supported us by taking missions that might have been too dangerous for our own shinobi, and you haven’t asked for any credit. Shimo would be happy to support you in return.”

“What support do you believe we need?” asks Commander Hourou. She is using her politest tone, but she is no aristocrat; she must be aware that her blunt wording might cause offense. Gauru can see, in the representative and her ANBU guard, the flow of chakra speeding up slightly, as if in anticipation.

“A village as well-hidden as yours cannot produce all its own food and supplies. And it’s clear that you need money, given that you take missions at least from Shimo and Yu. I expect you would benefit from a trading partner.”

“And what does Shimogakure gain?”

“Freer access to your shinobi, of course! Although we wouldn’t say no to learning a little about your techniques, either. They truly are exceptional.” By _freer access_ Gauru can only assume the representative means _free access_ —not having to give half the pay from their highest-ranked missions to Nouzuigakure. Neither is he surprised that Shimogakure wants to know the secrets of their chakra control techniques. They would not be the first.

“I’m afraid I will have to decline your offer,” says Commander Hourou. “Frankly, I don’t believe it was necessary to ask me to come all the way to Rice Field Country to meet with you. I hope Shimogakure will still deal with us where missions are concerned. If that was all…?”

“Not quite, Commander. I was hoping you would stay for some sweets. They’re very good.”

Apparently this is a signal to the four shinobi outside. As they begin to open the door, Gauru springs past Commander Hourou and aims for the tenketsu at the ANBU’s left elbow to disable their sword arm. They manage to block his first strike, but he slips around their guard to strike two tenketsu that will seal their breath, even as they unsheathe their sword. As the ANBU tries to inhale, they panic and stumble, leaving them open to a strike at the base of the skull that renders them unconscious.

When he turns, Commander Hourou behind him seems to be using an area-effect genjutsu to take down the four shinobi from the hall. Gauru goes to assist her, striking two of her attackers unconscious as she finishes with the other two. When they turn back to the representative, less than half a minute has passed since her signal, and her mouth is hanging open in shock at the efficiency of their victory. “I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this,” says Commander Hourou. “I have a feeling Shimogakure won’t be asking us to take any more missions, but we won’t begrudge you if you do. Such an attempt at ambush can hardly be considered serious, so I will simply warn you not to try it again.” She bows to the shaking representative, makes a quick sign for Gauru to follow, and then uses body flicker to leave the room.

“I honestly expected no different,” she tells Gauru as they begin the long run back to Nouzuigakure. “We’ve caught too many tails from Shimo sniffing around the village.”

He’s still watching behind them and on all sides to make sure no reinforcements are coming. It seems that they’re clear, for now. “Why did you come, then?” he asks.

“Well, it would be an insult not to.” She laughs drily. “And I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to make a genuine alliance. The representative had that right, at least. We could use an ally, if not one that wants to make us into a vassal.”

“I am… surprised that you would consider an alliance after so long. In the fifty years Nouzuigakure has existed, we have never so much as revealed ourselves to another village, even when running missions for them during the war.”

“Times are changing once again. As much as I hoped the end of the war would bring peace, there is still a great deal of tension between the elemental nations as well as the smaller countries they’ve… for lack of a better word, _destroyed_. The council agrees that it’s only a matter of time before we get caught in something bigger than our village can handle on its own, especially if we continue to take hits against targets in the elemental nations.” Nouzuigakure is not a large village, perhaps a quarter the size of Shimogakure and Yugakure. If the Veil _is_ ever breached, they might be easily overwhelmed by numbers in spite of their superior skill.

“Are you predicting another war, Hourou-sama?”

“We’re shinobi,” she says. Her eyes don’t waver from the horizon.

“For shinobi, there is always another war,” he finishes. “We live our lives by blood.”

“When my uncle founded Nouzuigakure, he thought we would be different. In retrospect, he sounds as foolish as Senju Hashirama.” She sighs, and glances at Gauru. “I have one idea that might bear fruit. I’ve talked it over with the council already.” She pauses to lay a genjutsu over the two of them that will foil any eavesdroppers. “I’m going to send an envoy to Uzushiogakure. They, of all villages, should understand our position.”

“May I request to be in the delegation, Hourou-sama?”

“We’ll see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set a few years after the second world war ended. Coincidentally (hah!) it’s also just about a year before Uzushio falls. I get to decide this, because it’s not clear in canon when it actually happened, just that it was 10ish years before the third world war started.
> 
> Also, Hourou is the equivalent of a Kage or village head, don't know if that was clear.


	3. Chapter 3

01:0429

“Damn but I wish they’d given us a real sensor,” mutters Uutai. “We’ve been out here for days and haven’t seen hide nor hair of them? I’m starting to think there weren’t any bandits in the first place.”

“Excuse _me_ for not being enough of a _sensor_ for you,” mutters Yurin, making a face at her. “I’m certainly not a sensor since I’ve only got half-kilometer range. Absolutely useless.”

“Frost Country is bigger than half a kilometer, so, yeah, kind of useless. I don’t love you any less for it but your range is useless.”

“Say that again when I detect an ambush from half a—”

Narato wearily puts a hand over Yurin’s mouth, and they subside.

“I’m beginning to regret letting a seventeen-year-old join my team,” says Uutai. “A shinobi who is truly confident in their abilities doesn’t need to boast.”

“Maybe I regret joining a team with a _grandmother_ who hates giving credit to anyone younger than her. And she barely has more experience than me anyway since she did four extra years at the academy!”

Uutai just rolls her eyes, but Narato jumps in to defend her: “Five years of field experience is no small matter, and she’s been taking outside missions for seven years more than you. Please show respect.”

Yurin glares at the trees ahead of them and doesn’t answer, so Uutai decides to play the good interrogator. “Yurin. I acknowledge that you’re a brilliant sensor and an excellent combat medic. Your skills are an asset to this team. But you’re also an enormous pain in the ass, so _please_ be quiet.”

For a given value of _good_.

The three of them run for a while longer in silence, concentrating on looking for any sign of habitation at all in the dense pine forest. Nothing. There’s a reason Nouzui was built in a forest similar to this one.

It’s several hours before Uutai feels the pressure in her head that means a long-range communicator is trying to contact her. She recognizes the feeling of Tano’s mind, so she lets him in.

 _Teams A and B report nothing,_ he says. _Team A didn’t find traces of bandits near Ze, which they find strange._

_We’ve got nothing either. When do we rendezvous?_

_Today, noon, but don’t hesitate to get there sooner. We’ll stop by the go-between company on the way back to notify them._

Uutai doesn’t ask whether he means ‘notify them that we couldn’t complete the mission’ or ‘notify them that Shimo is playing tricks on us. _Understood. We should be able to make the rendezvous point by dawn._ Out loud she says, “The other two teams haven’t found anything today either, even trying to find tracks near the town that was attacked last week. Even if the bandits are shinobi, Team A should have found _something_. They’ve got Aage, after all.”

“Can we go back to the part where you’re starting to think there were never any bandits?” says Narato.

“If there aren’t any bandits, either Shimo is really, really dumb or they gave a fake mission,” says Yurin, narrowing their eyes. “Why would Shimo give us a fake mission? What could they possibly gain from paying nine jounin and chuunin an obscene amount of money to take a vacation in Frost Country? Or do they really think they’d need _nine_ of us to clear out a nest of bandits? If their own shinobi can’t do it, it won’t take more than one team of ours.”

“You’re being sarcastic there, but that’s a very good question.” Uutai rubs her forehead thoughtfully under the blank hitai-ate. “What _would_ be worth 500,000 ryou to them if not protecting their citizens?” Narato immediately understands what she’s getting at, Uutai can tell by the look on her face. “They could want us away from the village for some reason, probably to ambush and question us.”

“Even if that is a stupid idea since we’re so much better than them,” says Yurin.

“Don’t get cocky, Fujiize. Any shinobi can be killed.”

“If that’s the case,” says Narato, “we must be on the lookout for enemies.”

“I’ll use my half-kilo—”

Uutai sighs.

 

It pays off, though. As irritating as Yurin’s strange complex about their sensing capability is, they do sense the group of tense/hostile shinobi near the rendezvous point. Neither of the other teams from Nouzui has gotten there yet, so Uutai lays an area genjutsu that will cover sound, scent, and sight; and they close in to check it out. There are only five enemies (wearing Shimo’s symbol, no less), so with the advantage of surprise three Nouzui shinobi should be able to take them out easy—

One of them turns to look right at her, and she nearly stops in her surprise. But she hasn’t been a shinobi nine years for nothing. Instead of freezing, she throws three kunai in rapid succession and flickers to another tree. She doesn’t even have to signal to Narato and Yurin, because it couldn’t be clearer that something’s wrong.

“ _Kai_ ,” says one of the Shimo nin, and Uutai can feel her genjutsu break. Shit. But how did the first one see through it…?

She falls back until she can’t see the enemy any more and starts to clear her mind for meditation. It’s far from the first time she’s done this halfway up a pine tree, but she’s never lacked confidence in her genjutsu to hide her.  Still, even if the Shimo nin aren’t fooled by genjutsu, she has plenty more to give them pause.

Once the familiar warmth of her bloodline ability flares up throughout her body, she jumps to another tree, back toward the direction of the enemy. They’ve scattered, so they’re no longer where they were, but when she pushes chakra to her ears she can hear them flitting through the trees. It really is nice to have impossibly precise chakra-assisted coordination in circumstances like these; it allows her to hit a moving target a hundred meters away. Right in the throat. Unfortunately, before he dies he manages to activate some kind of flare, so she has to abandon the tree she’s in.

A kunai buries itself in the trunk next to her, nicking the armor on her shoulder. She leaves again, but now that they’ve seen her they can follow. She weaves another genjutsu, hoping that only one of them can see through it. And that’s the one she should be after—but Yurin, the sensor, has a better chance of finding them.

Her chakra-sharpened eyes pick out another unfamiliar shinobi, and she augments her legs enough to jump straight to them. At the very last second, they notice her and turn to meet her shortsword with a kunai. Uutai keeps them occupied just long enough for Narato to hamstring them from the back. Uutai gives her a grim sign of approval before she’s gone again, leaving Uutai to finish off the Shimo nin. Their choked scream of pain attracts the attention of another enemy, and she has to leave again.

Ah. This one _is_ the one who can see through genjutsu. Up close, as she defends against his sword, he looks unsettlingly familiar. She’s only ever met a few people with eyes that particular shade of vivid blue, and every one of them was from the Seirakame clan. This man has Narato’s straight, blue-black hair and dark skin, too. There’s no way it’s a coincidence.

Uutai puts all her muscle into her sword arm and manages to disarm him—then she shifts it to balance her weight so she can kick him off the tree branch. As he falls, she creates a genjutsu that will follow him, brightly pointing Yurin to exactly where he is so they won’t have to rely on chakra sensing in case he’s cloaked. And since he can’t see it, he never knows until he takes Yurin’s chakra scalpel to the arm. His grunt of pain lets Uutai know it’s time to come and help, so she drops down and knocks him out with a chop to the back of the neck. Yurin quickly kneels and starts blocking his tenketsu while she stands watch.

A minute later Narato reappears, and Yurin confirms that all the Shimo nin are dead except this one. They look up at Uutai and raise their eyebrows. “So we’re all thinking it, right? This guy has got to be Narato’s cousin or something.”

They both turn to look at Narato, who is frowning. “There may have been members of my clan who left Nouzui, or there could be a branch that never came here in the first place. It’s not the easiest place to live if you can’t perceive genjutsu. But I don’t know why they would attack us at all. We need to take him back for questioning.”

“It’s a real pity the mindreaders won’t be able to do anything with him,” says Yurin as they hoist him up onto their shoulder. He’s too heavy for them—Yurin’s kind of a shrimp, even for seventeen.

“Mm.” Uutai takes him instead, to let her sensor concentrate better, and leads the way back to the rendezvous point. “I guess we’ll find out when we get home.”

What worries her is that Nouzui is still fourteen hours away at top speed, even without waiting for the other teams. And they _do_ have to wait for the other teams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact about Nouzui shinobi: when they're on missions as themselves they wear full-face masks (augmented by genjutsu) of the same type we saw in chapter 1. When they're on missions for other villages, they generally wear blank hitai-ate so that on a cursory inspection they'll look like shinobi from whichever village hired them.


	4. Chapter 4

00:2354

Iro enters the Veil room, where eight Fukumen are on duty and two of the other relief shinobi are already sitting by the wall. They wait quietly until the bell above them tolls twice; Hyuuga Mako takes Moreshi Uruka’s place. Iro gives the Veil a moment to settle and then walks up next to Hanamura Fumio and starts weaving her mind in with the others who are maintaining the Veil. She’s only dimly aware of Uruka stepping away. Even that awareness gradually fades until all that exists is her and seven other people’s minds and an enormous and incredibly powerful genjutsu.

Time doesn’t really work while she’s in the Veil, but it doesn’t seem like it’s all that long before an unfamiliar presence appears at the edge of the village, distorting the Veil oddly as if it’s sliding over them. Distantly, she feels herself frowning.

 _Anyone know who that is?_ she asks.

 _Never felt them before in my life_.

_We shouldn’t be expecting anyone while the Commander is away…_

_Not that there’s anyone we could possibly be expecting_ , Iro points out. She concentrates on memorizing that chakra signature. Except then she feels another one. And another one. She can feel that the other Veil monitors are as alarmed as she is, even though it could very well be an extremely lost party of merchants. In tight groups of three. _Acting Commander,_ she says to Nou Hayashi, even though probably five other people are talking to him at the same time. _Six unfamiliar chakra signatures in the east, grouped like shinobi. You have to send someone out to look!_

 _Don’t worry,_ says Nou, _I will. You all just need to maintain the Veil._ His presence drops out of Iro’s mind, and Iro feels chakra signatures from Fukumen and the outside teams start to gather. It helps her relax just a little more and get a grip on the Veil again. At least until five more squads of foreign shinobi appear on the edge of the village. One of them has made it past the wall of Nouzui nin and is heading for the center of the village.

_Nou-san, we might need backup in here. A squad of enemies is heading into the village._

_I can only spare you two. That will have to be enough._

The enemies enter the Commander’s Tower, and then start climbing the stairs just as their Fukumen reinforcements enter the room. _Prepare for combat_ , Torero tells the two guards. _Three incoming_.

Iro wants so badly to open her eyes and look toward the door, but she needs to keep the Veil up. She grits her teeth.

There’s an explosion behind her, and dimly she hears shouting. _Don’t turn around. They can handle it._

She’s concentrating so hard on maintaining the Veil that she misses everything that happens until Torero suddenly drops out. Without thinking she reaches out to his mind. _Torero-kun?_

He doesn’t reply. Fuck. She struggles to rebalance the mental load with the remaining six others.

 _They need help_ , says Mako. _If I leave, will you be able to keep the Veil up?_

 _Think so,_ say Arami. _Be quick._

Mako’s mind pulls out of the connection more smoothly than Torero’s did, but he still leaves all of them with more weight. Something sharp nicks Iro’s leg, and it requires an iron will to ignore the blood trickling down her calf. She can do this. She _can_.

She can do it until Haru drops out too. There aren’t enough points of balance, and the Veil _drops_. Iro’s blood runs cold, but now she has a new task—return to reality fast enough to help in the fight. She spins around to take in the scene: one masked shinobi down, three Fukumen down, and two apparently invisible enemies that Mako and Sana are fighting. She has never wished more that she were a sensor.

She improvises by casting a visual genjutsu that is locally disrupted by human-level chakra, so that the attackers leave sort of blank streaks in the air. It lets her get close enough to touch one of them. The shinobi trips over their own feet, slams into a wall, and it sounds like they throw up inside their mask. She lets Sana take care of that one while she goes after the other, but he’s too fast to catch, and he moves around so much she has to keep recasting her genjutsu. Finally Arami manages to hit him with her chakra-augmented speed and Han is able to nick him with a poisoned knife. He stumbles and drops, and is still.

The room is silent except for the heavy breathing of the surviving Fukumen, and someone’s quiet curse. Slowly Arami kneels down by the nearest enemy shinobi and pulls down their mask. “Ah. Fuck. Does anyone else think this guy looks like a Seirakame?”

“I’ve never felt them before,” Iro repeats. “They can’t be.”

But when Mako unmasks the other two, nobody can deny they all look like Seirakame. “Now that anyone can see the village, we’re in more danger than ever. We don’t have enough people to put the Veil back up right now, so the best thing we can do is go to the front to help.”

“Hold on,” says Han, “Haru’s still alive. I need to make sure they’re still stable, since we don’t have time to get them to the hospital. You go ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Almost before he finishes speaking Arami is out the door—well, out the giant exploded hole in the wall—and the rest of them quickly follow.

When they get to the southern side of the village, the situation really doesn’t look good. Most of Nouzui’s shinobi are in the village right now, but only half of them have mobilized yet and that leaves about a hundred people versus however many the enemy brought. Iro would guess three or four hundred. Even in a village that prides itself on being _better than everyone else_ , those aren’t good odds.

Well. Iro will just have to even the odds herself, won’t she?

Her fighting style, when she gets a chance to use it, is basically support: touch as many people as possible and fuck with their bodies, using inner ear and proprioceptive genjutsu, chakra imbalances, and whatever else she can. She wouldn’t be worried at all, except she’s gone on a grand total of two missions out of village despite having been in Fukumen for almost three years. So her combat reflexes aren’t exactly the best. Oh well. As it turns out, nobody on the other side is expecting to fall over just by being tapped.

Once they start expecting it, that’s when more of them come after her. For now she’s managing to evade their attacks—fucking up the ones who aren’t Seirakame with genjutsu, and just making sure she’s faster than the ones who are—but it won’t last forever. Already she’s got a few shallow cuts (none poisoned, thank heaven) and her chakra reserves, never huge in the first place, are running low.

It can’t have been more than half an hour—the combat evens out when the rest of the active duty shinobi show up, but it still doesn’t look _great_ —when Hyuuga Gauru shows up out of nowhere to tap her shoulder and signal her to follow him. She flickers up to a nearby roof, instinctively damping down her chakra and putting up a local veil, and looks at him questioningly. Wasn’t he supposed to be on a special mission with the Commander?

“We do not have much time,” he says. “Trust me that I was sent by Hourou-sama, and that I need you to come with me right now.”

“Where a, uh, where are we going?” asks Iro. Changing from battle mode to conversation mode this fast is making her trip over her tongue even as her heart still races.

“I will tell you once there is no risk of eavesdroppers. Come.” He flashes away toward the edge of the village, and Iro follows again, wanting to ask _why me?_ Did he actually just grab the first person he saw?

 

Half an hour out of Nouzui, when she asks again, he tells her, “We are going to Uzushiogakure. Hourou-sama intends to pursue an alliance.”

That just leaves Iro even more confused, because if there was ever a time for leaving the village to meet allies two days away, this _really isn’t it._ “Why now?” she asks Gauru, trying to look over at him _and_ not crash into any trees. “Shouldn’t we help defend the village first? What if we get them to agree to be our allies and then we go back and there’s _no more village_?”

“Hourou-sama is confident that she can handle the situation in the village,” says Gauru stiffly (he says everything stiffly, he’s like a Hyuuga stereotype). “If she cannot, however, it is unlikely that the village will be destroyed. More likely, it will be turned into a prison camp of sorts, and our shinobi put under some kind of outside control or taken to Shimogakure. With the aid of Uzushiogakure, we may have the opportunity to rescue them.”

“ _That’s_ who it was? Oh, fuck, Uutai’s out on a mission from Shimo! We have to—”

“We have to travel with all haste to Uzushiogakure,” says Gauru.

Iro grinds her teeth in frustration. “Look, why did you bring me? I have almost no field experience and we don’t get along that well. Couldn’t you have picked someone else?”

“Hourou-sama’s order was to bring with me the first Fukumen I saw. She rightly believes that a pair of Fukumen is much safer than one alone.”

“Then won’t we be safer if we recruit some shinobi with actual field experience?”

“We do not have time to make a detour.”

Iro doesn’t reply, but she does grind her teeth some more. Gauru makes her want to hit something, he’s so stuck on following orders to the letter. He’s not even _technically_ her superior officer—Fukumen has a flat command structure—but he has more field experience, has served longer, and has his orders direct from the Commander. She kind of has to listen to him. At least for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I counted, and Nouzui has only 230 active shinobi and a total population of about 1200. It's a teeny tiny village, even compared to minor hidden villages like Shimo! Shimo, by comparison, has probably 800 active shinobi and a total population closer to 9000. Konoha is the largest hidden village, mostly due to its massive civilian population; it has ~12,000 active shinobi out of ~200,000 people. 
> 
> Obviously I pulled those numbers out of my ass (except Konoha's shinobi population, that's an estimate based on the Shinobi Alliance). They're pretty small, because most of the continent's population is not ninjas! And it's not super heavily populated, anyway. As we've seen, the vast majority of places are wilderness.


	5. Chapter 5

01:1032

Yurin almost stops short when a familiar chakra signature flickers right at the edge of their range, and stumbles. Ugh. No, focus. They speed up to catch up with Tano, who’s taking point. “Hey, are you sensing what I’m sensing? i.e., two Nouzui nin out here where they probably shouldn’t be?”

Tano looks around at them, and nods. “Fukumen, no less. I was going to talk to them.”

“Definitely do it,” says Yurin. “We have big news, and they might have big news too if they’re coming from Nouzui.”

“Certainly, I’ll ask.” Tano stares ahead for a couple of seconds, and then turns to talk to everyone: “I made contact with Urushikawa Iro, who reports that Nouzui is under attack by around four hundred Shimo nin. She is travelling with Hyuuga Gauru to… Uzushio.” He frowns. “To Uzushio, to offer them an alliance. Hyuuga’s orders are for us to return home with all haste to assist. And Urushikawa wants to know how you’re doing, Karadaku.”

Uutai stops next to Tano, with the weird Seirakame slung over her shoulder like a bag of rice. “Tell her I’m great. Ask her if she needs reinforcements. It’s ten hours to Nouzui and my team might do her more good now than we would back home in ten hours.”

“She says yes, you should join her, but… Oh, good grief. Don’t tell Hyuuga she said you could.” Tano rolls his eyes. “Hanamura, take the prisoner and let’s get going.”

“Perfect,” says Yurin, after everyone passes by. “I always wanted to see another hidden village. They’re pretty much due south of us, just on the Hot Water side of the border, come on.”

Yurin peels off from the other two teams—good, Uutai and Narato are following them. When it takes about three minutes to catch up to Hyuuga and Urushikawa, Yurin realizes that the two _had_ to be almost a kilometer away when Yurin sensed them. They don’t say anything about it though, because contrary to popular belief they _can_ keep their bragging to themself, and anyway _some_ people don’t seem to appreciate their sensor range.

Uutai does the talking, after Hyuuga spins around looking ready to fight. Urushikawa Iro is transparently happy to see Uutai—even though Yurin’s only been on her squad for two missions they know Iro is her best friend. Pretty weird, seeing as how Uutai has five years on her—no, ugh, they missed Uutai’s introduction. “…so we figured we’d come along and play bodyguard.”

“You have a duty to your village,” says Hyuuga stiffly. Before he can say anything else Uutai interrupts him with:

“To make sure you get safely to Uzushio and are able to request backup.” Yurin kind of admires her restraint, even though it’s a little annoying. If it were them, they’d be sarcastic enough to his dumb, highly prestigious Fukumen face. They find a little satisfaction in knowing that Uutai is almost definitely going to become the leader of this five-man diplomacy squad, since she has more field experience and people actually like her. Do they resent Uutai for treating them like a kid? Yeah. Do they resent Hyuuga more for… literally everything about him? Fuck yeah.

Anyway, Hyuuga seems convinced enough that they start moving again. Uutai’s up front with him, probably talking about their plans for whatever, and Iro drops back to introduce herself.

“Hey, Urushikawa Iro. I don’t think we’ve properly met before, though I’ve seen you around.” She’s looking at Narato, because of course she is. Yurin’s the baby on this team.

“Seirakame Narato. I believe you knew that, though.”

“Narato, that’s it. Anyway, I’m glad to have you with us. Makes me feel better in case of an ambush. I wouldn’t be surprised if we met some Shimo nin, this close to the border.”

“I think we took care of most of them,” says Yurin, trying not to sound sulky because Iro didn’t even introduce herself to them. “Did Uutai mention the ambush?”

“No.” Iro’s shoulders tense a little bit. “Do tell.”

“You’ve probably already figured out that our mission from Shimo was a setup. There weren’t actually any bandits, it looks like the point was to keep us away from Nouzui for the invasion. They left behind five shinobi to slow us down or kill or capture us. I think they were expecting to actually be able to ambush us, as if we wouldn’t have a sensor. And here’s the weirdest thing. One of them was a Seirakame.”

“Genjutsu immunity and all,” mutters Iro. “We met a lot more during the invasion. They sent six advance squads with at least one Seirakame each, and one with three. I’d love to know how they got their hands on so many of our people.”

“Fuck,” says Yurin, with feeling.

“Then they were people you knew? People from Nouzui?” asks Narato sharply.

“No, no. I’d never felt any of them before. But isn’t the clan native to Nouzui?”

“No-one is _native_ to Nouzui, Iro-san. The village has only existed for three generations. My clan didn’t gain its bloodline ability over the course of fifty years.”

Iro’s quiet. When Yurin looks over at her, she’s chewing on her bottom lip. “You should put on your mask,” they blurt out, which is a really dumb thing to say right now. Except everyone is wearing theirs but her. It’s _weird_ how easy she is to read.

She raises her eyebrows at them, but she unclips her mask from her belt and puts it on. Now, at least they look properly like Nouzui shinobi. The intimidation factor is pretty helpful during battles actually—not that she’d know. Yeah, blah blah, Fukumen are the shield that keeps our village safe. They probably should have _stayed_ in the village, then, where they actually know what’s going on.

Whatever. Maybe they’ll learn how the outside world works and become better people from it, or something. After that, they mostly travel in silence, cloaked by an area-effect genjutsu Iro is maintaining (she’s good for something after all!). It would actually be pretty impressive if that weren’t her only useful skill, probably. They run.

In summary, they run until ass o’clock in the morning to make it to Kokkai, Hot Water’s closest port to Uzushio. Yurin’s exhausted because they’ve been up since ass o’clock in the morning _yesterday_ —actually maybe it was ass o’clock at night two days ago. Point is, normally they would have camped out and had a couple hours of sleep by now, except Hyuuga wanted to make Kokkai ASAP. And Yurin’s made sure to save some of their resentment for Uutai, who didn’t argue.

The REALLY dumb thing is that since it’s just after midnight, the docks aren’t even open and they have to run a little ways outside of town to camp out anyway. Hyuuga takes watch because of course he does, and _finally_ Yurin gets to sleep.

They wake up bright and early with dawn, and Yurin convinces Uutai they can at least buy breakfast in town. Hyuuga, who doesn’t so much have a stick up his ass as he’s actually a walking scarecrow, skips breakfast to get to the docks earlier and start talking to the dock workers to buy passage on a ship. It turns out that none of them had that much money on them—why would they? They weren’t planning on a second mission to another country!—so Uutai and Narato have to negotiate to provide extra wind to speed the ship along, for free, _plus_ paying a couple thousand ryou for the privilege. Whatever. Yurin’s lightning-natured, so Narato and Hyuuga are the ones who’ll be doing all the work.

Yurin just sits on the rail of the ship and chats to the crew; they’re efficient enough that they get bored even on pretty short journeys like this one, and most of them like meeting new people. Yurin learns that they’re mostly carrying luxury items like tea and textiles that come down from Yu, from Tea Country, from Rice Field Country. They’ll be stopping by some of the ports in Water Country after this, then down to the southern peninsula. Most of them have made this trip enough times that they could navigate it in their sleep, even though they’re just sailors. Yurin collects a couple stories about pirate attacks, and learns that that Water Country’s daimyo sponsors a lot of pirates.

As for Uzushio, it sounds like they can afford plenty of luxuries; they get rich off of sealwork that no-one can copy because they all know it breaks down if you look at it. Honestly Yurin’s surprised that Kiri hasn’t kidnapped half the village yet to take advantage of their specialization. It’s what Shimo’s doing to Nouzui, by the sound of it. Makes Yurin’s blood want to boil—but they’re trying not to think about it right now. And then there’s the other side: they dodge questions about their mission with an apologetic “Top secret shinobi business, you know how it is.” _That’s_ called information-gathering, _Uutaichou._ Important shinobi skill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to point out to Yurin that literally everyone had been awake for at least twenty-four hours straight at the point where they got to Kokkai...


	6. Chapter 6

02:1742

The merchant ship makes port at Uzushio about an hour before sunset, and Narato is relieved. She has been running behind it on the water, on and off, for about nine hours. If the Nouzui nin receive a hostile welcome in Uzushio, she will be nearly useless in a fight; her chakra reserves are by no means infinite, and even with perfect control wind ninjutsu takes a lot. Her concentration is compromised, too, from trying to keep the sails from getting torn to shreds while staying on top of the water. So it is with _great_ relief that she steps onto the dock, looking up at the red-tiled rooves of Uzushio’s port district.

Yurin is as full of energy as ever; they leap off the side of the ship and stretch dramatically, and then start looking in every direction. They remind Narato of an inquisitive bird, and she smiles in their direction. It looks like they’ve found… three genin to talk to? She drifts over to listen to their conversation.

A girl, with her thick mauve hair cut severely at chin length, is speaking to Yurin.  “ _And_ you jumped like forty feet in the air.”

“I can see you’re well on your way to winning the Being Observant and Nosy on the Docks award,” says Yurin, sounding amused. “Who are you supposed to be, then? Unsupervised genin? Castaways in progress?” This despite the fact that they are all clearly wearing spiral-patterned hitai-ate.

“Sensei’s around somewhere,” says the mauve-haired girl, waving her hand vaguely. “I’m Jima, and this is Tanka and Tensui. We’re on a people-watching mission.”

“Should you really be giving out your names to foreign shinobi who turn up on your dock?”

“Why, what would you do with our names?” asks Tanka, a tall fat girl with a shaved head.

“The most obvious one is that I might have a name-based secret technique that could do absolutely _anything_ , like making you slaves to my will or killing you on the spot. I could also use it to trick someone into thinking I’m friends with you and infiltrate the village. Narato, can you think of anything else?”

“I suppose you could pretend you were holding these children hostage,” says Narato. “I don’t see why it’s necessary to tell them all the ways you could use simple information to hurt them. We _are_ on a diplomatic mission.”

“That info’s free,” says Yurin cheerfully, “Along with her given name. Anyone who figures out how to hurt us with that gets bonus points.”

“I can’t believe the first thing you decided to do after getting here is harass the local genin,” says Uutai, walking up behind Yurin (Iro, never far behind, mutters, “I can…”). Uutai is much more imposing than Yurin is; ten centimeters taller, twice as heavy, and wearing the same featureless white mask. The three children look up at her, apparently impressed. “Would you three be willing to tell us where we might find a diplomatic representative of Uzushio?”

“I think Sensei would know,” says Tanka. She jumps down off the crate she’s sharing with the last genin, a skinny blue-haired boy. “We can go look for them if you want.”

Jima follows her. “Yeah! This is way more exciting than people-watching. All the people are dock workers, anyway,” she confides, wrinkling her nose. “They all start to look the same after a while. C’mon, Ten-kun.”

The Nouzui shinobi follow the three genin off the dock and further into the streets of the port district. It’s busy, with plenty of people shopping and loitering by the side of the road. The air smells of cheap fried food—Narato, who has eaten nothing but ration bars and a few apples for three days, inhales deeply, longingly. Above them, Uzushio rises in tiers; the middle of the village is its highest point, a belltower with the whirlpool symbol painted near the top. Around the outside of the village is a wall, although it looks almost decorative because it’s only about six meters high.

The genin find their instructor without too much trouble. The jounin turns out to be a thickset person with deep red hair and a neat beard. They’re looking at a selection of flat throwing knives when Tanka tugs on their sleeve.

“Sensei, these creepy foreigners want to talk to a diplomat.”

“We’re not creepy,” Yurin mutters, so quietly that it’s likely only Narato hears them. “Gauru is creepy. I’m not.”

“You _are_ wearing a featureless white mask and wearing no identifying marks to indicate which village you’re from,” Narato reminds them.

At this point the jounin has turned to look them over. “Why do you want to talk to a diplomat?”

“We have diplomatic matters to discuss,” Uutai tells them. “It might be best to speak to your village head.”

“You have to understand that’s an extremely unlikely request, coming from five masked shinobi from an unknown village. Look, if you take off your masks I’ll at least listen to you. But you look incredibly untrustworthy at the moment.”

“That’s fair enough,” says Iro. She takes off her mask—somehow it’s not surprising that she was the first. Behind her mask, Narato sees Uutai raise her eyebrows at Iro, and Narato wonders whether she is using any disguise genjutsu at all. When Narato takes off her own mask, she uses a minor illusion to make her eyes appear plain black. Similarly, she has to assume that Gauru is hiding his obvious Hyuuga features.

The jounin looks mildly at them and says, “Who are you all, then?”

“Uutai,” says Uutai, “squad captain.”

“Yurin, squad medic.”

“Narato, squad member. Nothing special.” Yurin claps her on the shoulder, and when she looks around at them they’re grinning. They must be enjoying the fact that they sound more important than her despite her seniority. She smiles back at them.

“Gauru, Fukumen.” That gets an odd look from the jounin, but Iro follows up immediately with: “Iro, Fukumen.”

“That was singularly uninformative,” says the jounin. “Congratulations. I’m Arashina, and you can probably guess my clan name. Anyway, I suppose I’ll trust you enough to take you to the village heads. It’s not as if you’ll be able to hurt them, after security. One more thing before we go—I’ll need to put a seal on you all, for insurance.” Uutai nods her acquiescence, so Arashina puts a hand slowly on the side of her neck, giving her time to not cut it off. When they lift their hand away, there’s a symbol on her neck, as if drawn in black ink. Arashina does not offer to explain what it is, just puts the same seal on everyone else. “All right, that’s taken care of. Come on.”

As they begin to lead the Nouzui shinobi up the street, Narato hears Jima whisper to Tensui, “They didn’t even know we have two village heads, though. They’re not very good assassins.”

“It could be a trick,” Tensui whispers back solemnly. Neither of them appears to realize that the foreign shinobi can easily hear them.

The streets of Uzushio are very beautiful; they’re much narrower than Nouzui’s, and gray stone is replaced with clean white stucco. Many of the buildings have plants spilling down from the rooves or from baskets on the windowsills. As the party walks, they pass more Uzushio shinobi, and Arashina and their genin wave at them all cheerfully. The jounin seems to be repeatedly making a simple hand sign; Narato assumes that the sign means _possibly dangerous foreigners_.

Near the top of the hill Arashina stops at a building with a sign over the door that says ADMINISTRATION, and holds up a hand. “You wait here. Jima, Ten, Tanka, come in with me.”

After a few minutes—during which Uutai repeatedly tells Yurin not to wander off—Arashina reappears and beckons them inside. “The village heads can talk to you now.”

The inside of the building isn’t too different from the Commander’s Tower in Nouzui, except in minor architectural details. The party walks up a flight of stairs and they find themselves in a small office with windows looking out over the bay, where a man and a woman are sitting behind a large desk. As soon as the door closes a circular design—another seal—appears beneath their feet. Arashina, Narato notices, is standing off to the right, well outside the circle.

“Welcome, highly suspicious foreigners,” says the man. He’s wearing a long blue-grey coat with a high collar and his red hair is tied into a knot on top of his head. His habitual expression seems to be a friendly, crooked smile. “From what I hear, you’ve been afraid to talk freely outside. Rest assured that this room is completely protected from eavesdroppers. I’m Uzumaki Makoto. What are your names?”

“I’m Karadaku Uutai, jounin squad captain of Nouzuigakure.” Uutai bows, and then looks at Gauru, who is by general agreement the co-leader of this mission.

He bows as well, and says, “Hyuuga Gauru, jounin Fukumen of Nouzuigakure.”

“Let me stop you right there,” says the woman next to Makoto, who is wearing a similar coat and whose hair flows freely down her back and shoulders. “I’ve never heard of Nouzuigakure. You’re not Konoha nin, and yet one of you is a Hyuuga. What’s going on?”

“ _No-one’s_ heard of Nouzui,” says Iro. “It’s the only truly hidden village. That we know of,” she adds when Yurin nudges her with their elbow. “I suppose it requires a lot of explaining… I’m Urushikawa Iro, by the way. I’m Fukumen too, but I’m still a tokujou.”

“Charmed.” The woman massages the center of her forehead with one thumb. “I’m Kanna. _What_ is Fukumen?”

“Fukumen is the organization within Nouzuigakure that maintains the large genjutsu protecting the village from unwanted attention,” says Gauru. “Members are also tasked with the defense of the village, and rarely leave it for missions.”

“This isn’t helpful at all!” says Makoto, throwing his hands in the air. “Can you just… tell us something helpful?”

“I’ll take a shot,” says Yurin. They wave to the village heads—Narato suspects it’s in the spirit of sarcasm. “Hi, Fujiize Yurin. We want an alliance with your village, and not just because ours is being attacked by four hundred Shimo nin right now. It would totally be mutually beneficial. Commander says, and I believe her.”

Uutai sighs heavily, and drops her hand hard onto the top of their head. “Hyuuga, you’re the one who was most recently in contact with Hourou-sama. Can you explain why anyone would want an alliance with us?”

“No, no, I’m willing to accept that premise,” says Kanna. “I think the more pertinent thing is that you’re refugees. Well, I assume. Unless four hundred enemy shinobi is no big thing for Nouzui. Is it?”

“Not at all, Uzumaki-sama,” says Gauru. “Hourou-sama believes that the occupants of the village are likely to be taken prisoner and forced to serve, as Shimogakure wishes to use our village’s unique skillset without paying for missions.”

“Sound familiar?” Makoto mutters to Kanna. She grimaces at him, then gestures for Gauru to continue.

“We would appreciate your assistance in… liberating our village, in the likely event that Shimogakure leaves survivors. I assure you that our shinobi are very skilled, but they are also outnumbered two to one.”

Gauru waits with his hands folded neatly behind him, but the village heads say nothing. They look a little bit stunned. Finally, Makoto says, “Um, one moment.” He quickly traces a shape on the desk in front of him, and then begins talking to Kanna, apparently without making any noise. Could he have drawn a seal, not in ink or blood, but in chakra? Narato has heard that Uzushio specializes in sealing the same way Nouzui specializes in precise chakra control. Nouzui doesn’t deal with many villages outside of the northern corridor—Kusa is probably the only exception—so all they know is what information-gathering teams bring back. It could all be deliberate misinformation, as far as they know.

Yurin shifts uncomfortably and glances at Uutai, who is standing as still as a statue. Her dark gray hair, matte armor, and ashy skin do nothing to dispel the image that their squad captain is made of stone. Arashina is sitting on a small table in the corner now, casually writing something on a scrap of paper. Narato lets out a silent breath and closes her eyes.

A few minutes pass in tense silence; Yurin starts scrubbing at a spot of dirt on their mask. Finally Makoto turns back to the Nouzui party, having somehow dispelled his silence seal (?) without Narato noticing. “We are cautiously willing to aid you in what way we can—keeping in mind that Uzushio is only about the same size as Shimo in the first place—but we need some assurance that you are who you say you are.”

“What assurance can we give?” asks Uutai. “As far as anyone here knows, our village doesn’t exist. We have no insignia for the same reason.”

Makoto smiles. “Tell us about your village. Over dinner.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did Kishimoto design Uzushio to be mostly high-rise office buildings? That’s so uncool. I’m imagining it to look more like a Mediterranean seaside town (search up Capri, it’s on a slope right on the shore, similar to the arrangement I imagined for Uzushio), though I also had a lot of fun looking at Utagawa Sadahide’s paintings of 1860s Yokohama. Did you know that his surname is actually the name of his art school? Like he joined an art clan and got a new art name. I love this fact about art school.


End file.
